Michigan State baseball went down to Greenville, South Carolina to take on Western Michigan, Florida State and Illinois in what was supposed to be an event that included three games in three days. However, due to the weather on Friday, the Spartans ended up playing Western Michigan and Florida State on Saturday, with the lone game coming on Sunday morning against Illinois.
Earlier in the week, prior to the trio of weekend games, the Spartans defeated then undefeated Georgia by a score of 19-6 down in Athens.
Below is a full recap of the weekend.
Western Michigan recap (13-3 win)
Michigan State started its weekend off against an in-state foe in the Western Michigan Broncos in game one of a doubleheader for the Spartans on Saturday.
Michigan State sent Nick Powers to be hill to face off against Western Michigan’s Brady Miller.
The Broncos came in swinging, as Cade Sullivan hit a solo home run to kick things off in the top of the first inning. The Spartan offense would not take kindly to that home run, as they responded with three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Nick Williams, Ryan McKa, and Dillon Kark all came through with RBI singles. The scoring would continue in the second inning as both the Broncos and Spartans would trade runs, so after two innings of play, the Spartans led 4-2.
Christian Williams would tack on to the Michigan State total with a two-RBI single to take a 6-2 lead after four innings of baseball. In the bottom half of the fifth inning, Randy Seymour tacked on a solo home run of his own to match Western Michigan’s in the very first inning. Michigan State would control the game the rest of the way en route to a 13-3 win over Western Michigan.
Powers responded well after the first inning home run by going seven innings and only allowing two earned runs. Michigan State improved to 4-5 with the victory and the loss dropped the Broncos to 6-3.
Florida State recap (11-2 loss)
Michigan State’s second game of the doubleheader came against the Florida State Seminoles. Florida State came in with a record of 7-0, while Michigan State entered the contest one game under .500 at 4-5.
Michigan State sent sophomore starting pitcher Joseph Dzierwa to the mound as he faced off against Jamie Arnold of Florida State.
This would be a tale of two completely different games for the Spartans on Saturday, as the Seminoles scored the first nine runs of the game, including two home runs. Although the Spartans gave up the first nine runs of the game, Dzierwa kept MSU in it, as he went five innings, giving up three earned runs, and striking out nine Florida State batters.
The Michigan State bullpen allowed eight runs in four innings of action. Arnold threw six shutout innings for FSU, while striking out seven Spartan batters.
Michigan State would tack on two late runs, but would ultimately ended up losing the contest by a final score of 11-2. Florida State improved to 8-0 on the 2024 season with the victory, and the Spartans dropped to 4-6.
Illinois recap (12-6 loss)
Michigan State and Illinois faced off in a lone non-conference battle on Sunday morning (while both teams play in the Big Ten, this contest at this point in the 2024 season was considered as a non-conference game).
As mentioned, Michigan State entered the game with a 1-1 record on the weekend and with a 4-6 overall record. Illinois entered play with an identical 4-6 record.
Nolan Higgins got the start against the Fighting Illini, while Jake Swartz got the start for Illinois.
Sunday’s contest began eerily similar to the Florida State game. Illinois would score the first nine runs of the game, capped off by a three-run home run by Drake Westcott. Higgins could not make it out of the second inning, as he pitched just 1.2 innings and gave up six total runs, while walking four Illinois batters.
The Michigan State defense did no favors for their pitchers on Sunday, though, as the Spartans committed three errors, which led to six of the 12 runs scored marked down as unearned.
The Spartan bats would get going later in the game, but unfortunately there weren’t enough outs to complete the comeback. Michigan State lost this one by a final score of 12-6, dropping the Spartans' record to 4-7, while the Illini improved to 5-6.
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